I would argue that Mao really needs a YOLO skate i.e. at least 1 3A and 3-3 in her FP to have a shot if Kim is clean throughout. This is because at the Olympics, the judges will award GOEs like crazy and the person who benefits from this most is Kim.

She's planning it, but each time this season she hasn't felt "on" enough to attempt the 3-3. At NHK her layout with 3A, no 3-3, but a 2A-3T is still very difficult but not what I would call "YOLO skate" tier.

I guess the question is... what if Mao is perfect? What would her scores be like?

It would be quite monstrous.

But it's very theoretical since Mao has not been able to go PERFECT -- as in no UR/DG, 2-ft landing or e call while executing all her planned jumps properly & Lvl 4 on spins & step. Basically it's like saying, "What would mathman get if he were to skate PERFECT w/ 7 triples in Sochi?"

I would argue that it's quite different to that proposition because for all Mathman's formidable powers I don't think it is in his capabilities to skate a 7-8 triple free program in Sochi. Whereas Mao has the capacity/potential to do so, but whether this is likely has yet to be seen.

I would argue that it's quite different to that proposition because for all Mathman's powers I don't think it is in his capabilities to skate a 7-8 triple free program in Sochi. Whereas Mao has the capacity/potential to do so, but whether this is likely has yet to be seen.

Mao had 2 quads as a senior skater to prove this. She hasn't. I'm not sure if fans are being overly hopeful.

Her main rival (Yuna) OTOH went clean back-to-back twice -- Olympics & Worlds. I don't think a lot of her fans expected her to go clean back-to-back in Vancouver. Sure she had the "capacity/potential" but that doesn't mean actually delivering everything when it matters the most.

A lot of her fans weren't sure if she could do it again...ever...and she did in London. So she sort of has a cred now.

I want everyone to skate well since they prepared their entire lives for their Olympic moment, but I also try to be zen about it. I don't expect clean / good performance from everyone.

I guess the question is... what if Mao is perfect? What would her scores be like?

In another thread I tried addition to her NHK scores. With the 8 triple layout (add a clean 3A, clean 3-3, and 3S) she could score 150 (while the NHK tech panel was quite generous, we can assume a "perfect" Mao would score similarly in PCS and maybe 1 point more in GOE).

Substituting 3A-2T for the 3-3 and doing a solo Flip instead of Lutz would reduce her ideal BV by 1.3 points, but Asada flutzes anyway. The BV difference would be compensated through extra GOE.

Originally Posted by Nadia01

Mao had 2 quads as a senior skater to prove this. She hasn't. I'm not sure if fans are being overly hopeful.

I fully expect Mao to attempt a program with all the difficulty and I also think she will fall short one way or another when it comes time for the Sochi LP. But we do have videos of her actually landing each of her jumping passes in isolation (unlike when she floated the idea of a 3A-3T). So for me, it's not about being hopeful. It's just fun to speculate about what would happen if she by some miracle did do a perfect FS. Addition is an easy enough task.

Well, you see, until recently Yu-Na was actually a vampire. She tried to contain her emotions and relent from engaging in affectionate embraces with the blood drinker she fell in love with, but it was too much. Her heart yearned too greatly. Soon after being turned (actually very uncommon, most people simply die, which is why more vampires don't exist in our world), her lover abandoned her for another. Apparently this vampire, an acquaintance of Tatiana Tarasova, has a fetish for turning famous Asian women. They were never actually in love with Yu-Na and just feigned it in order to get a taste of her sweet blood.

Yu-na, now heart broken and ashamed of her vampyric state, paid an extraordinary sum of money to a group of mystic experts so that they would quest into the Arirang mountain and hopefully procure an ancient remedy for her malady. It's said that only few extremely talented and lucky individuals are able to complete the quest every century. People are plucked out of childhood and trained in the arts their whole lives just to fulfill this purpose, but the task is nearly impossible. While living out her days as a vampire, uncertain if she would actually be cured, Yu-Na decided to also experiment with radical scientific procedures in order to cleanse herself.

One very diabolical scientist said he had a cure for Yu-Na, which had so far been successful on mice. She was willing to try anything and underwent the surgery. The scientist had lied to her, though. What he actually wanted was to experiment on her supernaturally altered body, trying genetic mutations that would quickly kill any normal human. His experiment was successful; he altered the DNA of the bones in Yu-Na's legs to make them nearly unbreakable, which was tested by trying to slice through part of her lower leg with a silver saber. However, a side effect was caused by this procedure: Yu-Na was in immense pain daily as the genetic mutation constantly created internal pressure within her body. Enraged by the scientist's treachery after discovering what he had really done, Yu-Na quickly consumed his blood and used his corpse as kindling for her fireplace.

Luck shined upon Yu-Na, though! One of the mystics had returned from the Arirang mountain and actually been able to obtain the cure for her vapirism! She immediately drank the potion and found herself returned to a warm-blooded human state the next morning. The pain in her legs was even gone. Upon returning to the ice rink to train for the glorious Golden Spin of Zagreb competition and get back on track with her life, she found her legs to feel a little heavier than before. The experiment performed on her had carried through back to her human state and she now had unbreakable leg bones that were a little denser then before. At first this extra weight threw her jumps off, but every time she fell her legs were never in danger. This quickly gave her the confidence to jump without fear and adapt to the additional weight gain.

In summation, it's going to take a lot of strong hits with a nice heavy crowbar to really hurt Yu-Na's legs. Her bones are super-reinforced now and one wimpy little Nancy Kerrigan whack won't be enough.